


The End Made a Beginning

by caprithebunny



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, Death, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Reunions, Separations, Slow Burn, Smut, multiple other relationships, secret romance for now, sensitive topics, so many feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:04:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13052703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caprithebunny/pseuds/caprithebunny
Summary: Elaine Moore's life has crumbled, and she's scrambling to hold on to what is left. She will make many friends, many enemies, and someone to fill the void Nate's death has caused.





	1. Introduction

I didn’t wake up on October 23rd thinking my entire life would change. I wasn’t thinking that day would be the last I spent happily with my husband and son. I hadn’t thought my world would come to an abrupt, screeching halt, and instead crumble into something crazed, something writers in my time could never have hoped to describe. 

October 23, 2077  
Running. I’m glad I stayed in shape, as running to the Vault would have been even less pleasant than it was already. I could barely hear Nate shushing Shaun over my own heartbeat, and the anxious churning of my stomach did little to help me calm down. I saw the gates to the Vault, guarded by military personnel. In the panic and chaos of everything, the soldiers in power armor, for some reason, stood out. They made this more serious, made this seem even less likely to be a hoax or a drill; it didn’t help that they nearly mowed down the Vault-Tec representative I’d spoken with just yesterday. The knots in my stomach intensified as I stopped in front of a man with a clipboard just inside the gates.  
“We need to get in! My name is Elaine Moore, and I’m on the list!” I watched, trying to get control of my panic, as he flipped through the pages on his clipboard.  
“Moore… Moore… Moore, Elaine, husband Moore, Nate and infant son Moore, Shaun.” The man stepped out of my way, and gestured us forward. As I rushed forward, I hear my neighbors who didn’t meet clearance yelling in dismay. A man, armored in what seemed to be Vault-Tec equipment, waved and shouted for me to follow him, though it was hard to understand him over the roar of machinery. As we rounded several vans parked in the clearing, I saw a platform in the ground, with some of my neighbors standing upon it. The man incoherently yelled and waved me towards the platform. The only word I understood was ‘center’. I hurriedly got onto the platform, turning to help Nate.  
“Are you and Shaun okay?” Even though my voice was raised, I worried he wouldn’t hear me. I don’t know if he said the words, or if he only mouthed them to me, but I understood his message.  
“We’re fine. I love you.” But, as he said it, I heard a deafening, heart-wrenching explosion. In the distance, I saw a mushroom cloud of dust, dirt, and who knows what else rise into the air, and beneath it, a wave of the same, devouring the land between the explosion and us. I felt the platform under us jolt and begin to lower, but I knew it would be too late. There’s no way we would make it down in time.  
_Closer._ I felt so sick to my stomach, I felt the heat beginning to burn my face. The platform stopped, then lurched down.  
_Closer._ I felt my ears pop painfully from the air pressure, started to cough from the dust that filled my face. The heat made me feel dizzy. Suddenly, the platform lurched again, and another platform came out and shielded us from the outside chaos.  
I don’t think much time passed before the dead silence and darkness ended. The florescent lights burned my eyes at first, and my ears popped once more. I heard several people talking at once, but when my eyes grew accustomed to the light I saw another two Vault-Tec personnel standing at the top of a set of stairs that seemed to lead deeper into the vault.  
“Relax, relax folks! Welcome to Vault 111, your new home, underground! Now, if you would please step this way and follow the instructions of staff we’ll get you all set up.” They motioned to the area behind them, and I felt one of Nate’s hands on my back. I didn’t realize it, but I hadn’t moved. He gently pushed me, and I fell in behind old man Johnson and the Idecki sisters. As I reached the top of the stairs and entered the entry way, I saw a few doctors and other staff members in jumpsuits of cobalt blue with gold connecting the neck and waist down the front along with the vault number on the back. I approached a darkly tanned woman who was handing out these suits to the new comers.  
“Here you go, dear. Follow Dr. Benne to the depressurizing room, and then you can get started on your life here in Vault 111.” I nodded, took a suit, and turned towards the pointed-out doctor. He was a tall, mid-forties man with a thinner frame and white hair. His smile seemed forced, and he gave off a rather… odd vibe. As Nate and I followed him, I could hear Nate softly talking to Shaun as the doctor explained to us where we were exactly.  
“Hello, hello. Welcome to Vault 111. Vault 111 is one of the most advanced facilities- not that the others aren’t great, mind you. I’m escorting you to our depressurizing and sanitizing pods, to keep conditions in the Vault as healthy as they can be.” As we followed him, I heard snippets of other conversations: how they were worried if their other family members made it, if their kids were okay, how long would we be down here. I felt my stomach knot once more; I knew that, most likely, none of my family had made it, except for my husband and son. Before I could dwell on this, Dr. Benne led us to a room with bulky pods that had a connected control stand.  
“Alright, put your suits on and step inside. This will only take a moment.” I felt heat flare from my face to all down my neck. I caught a glimpse of Nate looking nonplussed. I quickly discarded most of my clothes and jerked the suit on as fast as possible. I turned to Nate and held Shaun as he did the same. He took Shaun once more, and gave me a soft kiss on the top of my head before we stepped into our pods. I watched as the lid closed, and listened as a feminine robotic voice announced its processing. I waved to Nate from my pod, and watched as he lifted Shaun’s hand to wave back.  
I started to feel odd. Cold. The temperature seemed to drop, and it didn’t seem right. I started to panic, but then… I don’t know what happened.

2227  
I took a deep breath as the cold withdrew. Something wasn’t right. I saw the vault outside my pod was dark, and I felt so weak. Then I heard them. A rough, almost raspy voice. I saw who it belonged to: a mostly bald man with a vicious scar down the left side of his face. He had some type of armor on, and was accompanied by what I assumed to be a female in a blue hazmat suit. They were opening Nate’s pod. I heard him coughing, and saw him clutch Shaun to his chest.  
“I-Is it over? Are we safe?”  
“Almost. Just hold on.” I heard the woman coo at Shaun and reach to take him, but Nate jerk him away.  
“It’s fine, I’ve got him!”  
“Let the boy go. Now.” I saw the grizzled man threateningly aim his revolver at Nate’s chest. I weakly pounded on the glass to my pod as a sense of panic came over me.  
“No! You’re not gonna take Shaun!”  
**POW.**  
It felt like ice was spreading through me. I couldn’t think or say anything as I watched my husband’s lifeless body fall back into the seat of his pod. The man turned to me, his face close to my window as a different kind of cold began to seep back into my skin.  
“At least we still have the backup.”


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elaine has woken up, and left the safety of the Vault. However, she must now cope with the death of Nate, her missing son, and the horrors of Post-Apocalyptic Boston.

October 23, 2287

For a second time, I felt that unnatural chill withdraws from my body and discomfort as my lungs filled with air. My heart raced as I banged on my pod door. I don’t understand how or why I was being released, but that’s not what mattered.

I clambered out, coughing as stale air filled my lungs. I lunged to Nate’s control stand, frantic to get his pod open. Surely what I had seen was a horrid, horrid dream. Nate and Shaun were fine and just simply… Frozen. But as the pod door lifted, and all I saw was the lifeless, frozen, alone body of my husband, reality hit me. 

My knees gave out from underneath me. For a long moment, all I could do was stare at his face. My eyes followed the burn along the left side of his face that spread to his shoulder. He was out on deployment and was hit with a Molotov cocktail. I looked to his coarse, auburn hair, and, even though I couldn’t see them, his forest green eyes. I memorized his face, before slowly, shakily reaching out and taking his wedding ring off. I stared at it in my hand, realizing what all of this meant. Finally, I stood.

“I swear, Nate, I’ll find Shaun… And kill whoever did this.” My voice didn’t sound like my own. It sounded cold, harsh. I turned away and had started to walk down the walkway, away from Nate, away from the broken promise of a new life… When I looked back. One last time. And then, I walked out.

Outside of Vault 111

As the platform shuddered to a stop, I gasped in lungfuls of fresh air, and looked around. All of the area looked… Dead. Skeletons littered the ground, the Vault-Tec vans’ paint had rusted away, and the windows were bashed in. I shifted the bag on my shoulder. I found it in the sleeping quarters and filled it with small things I thought would help: bullets, stimpacks, bandages. There wasn’t much left in the Vault… Other than the roaches.

Seriously, fuck those roaches. I shivered, remembering how one had actually tried to run at me; luckily, I had thought to grab a security baton. Still doesn’t discount the really gross squishy-crunch the roaches made when hit. I also picked up a 10mm pistol, and managed to find a relatively intact holster. Found a still working Pip-Boy; while it was relatively heavy and bulky, I figured it’d be better off in my hands.  
I slowly stepped down from the platform, and decided to rummage through what was left of the supplies in the clearing.   
Turns out, there was still some untouched, or well, relatively untouched items. I managed to find quite a bit of food, some more 10mm ammo, and a few more stimpacks. I picked up a final can of Cram, and snorted.

“Runs out in… never.” Chucking it into the backpack, I started for, well… home. I slowly set off back down the path to Sanctuary Hills, my breath catching as I came closer, the chilling butterflies in my stomach picking up in intensity. Not even the odd plant life could push any of it away; not the strange bell-shaped blue flowers, nor the blood-red water plants. As I stepped over boundary, into Sanctuary, I felt so sick I thought I might puke. I didn’t want to remember, I didn’t want to think anymore about what had happened. I had to stay focused; there was no time to grieve while Shaun was gone. But… The idea of crumbling kept nagging as I made my way down the street, to my house. There were tears pricking my eyes when I saw someone I didn’t think I’d even see again. 

“Codsworth!”

~

A while later, after catching up with Codsworth and explaining what had happened, he pointed me in the direction of Concord. While I had no hopes that Shaun would be there, maybe… Just maybe, there would be some answers. Some help in finding him. But before I even thought about heading out, I wanted to sleep. Just… Sleep. I stepped into my house, and a certain… emptiness. Loneliness and loss crept through me as I fell onto what remained of my couch: somehow, the world ended didn’t have an effect of it. As much as I would have preferred it, sleep didn’t come first; no, the tears did. But they brought sleep; an emotionally-exhausted, dreamless sleep.

I woke up several hours later; it had been around late evening when I laid down. It was still rather dark outside, but the sky was beginning to appear lighter as I watched. However, I hadn’t woke up on my own accord; cooking food had tempted me into it. I sat up, stretched, and heard a holotape move in another small bag I had found while talking to Codsworth earlier. I lightly placed a hand over the bag; it was a tape Codsworth had given me, though it was meant to be a gift from Nate. I wasn’t ready to watch it yet. Thought, in the back of my mind, I wondered if I ever would. 

I stood up, and hobbled outside; apparently, sleeping oddly on your leg does you no favors. Codsworth had made a small fire in the middle of the street, upon which he had a skillet with slabs of Cram in. It honestly smelled delicious, especially since I felt I could eat four cans of said food and still have room for more. 

“Ah! Good morning, mum! I figured 210 years late to both dinner and breakfast would render one eager for food.” I chuckled, and dragged a chair from the kitchen outside to sit on. Suppose some refueling could not hurt.

After eating, I finally headed on to Concord. It was very early morning, and I could hear ravens crowing in trees. They seemed to be the only ones there, unfortunately… As I passed over the bridge heading out of Sanctuary, I found a man dressed in shabby clothing, dead along side a grotesque-looking dog. As distasteful as it was, I picked up the tire iron from between them, and checked the man’s pockets, along with a duffle bag he’d appeared to have thrown near the suburb’s statue. Luckily, more bullets were there to find.

I headed to the local Red Rocket, only to stop in my tracks. There was a dog, seemingly untouched by the radiation. He looked like he was waiting for someone or something, and before I could hide, the dog saw me. I froze, tire iron in hand, unsure of what to do. The dog barked, and cheerfully jogged over to me. When he reached me, he barked again, wagged his tail, and stretched. Figuring the dog was harmless, I slowly knelt and extended my hand to him. He licked my hand eagerly, before rubbing his face against my hand for pets. Laughing, I obliged him.

“Friendly, huh? You wanna come with me, boy?” He barked again and danced around in a circle. Taking that as a yes, I went ahead and searched the Red Rocket for supplies. I know I’m on a time crunch, but any little thing that can aid me in my hunt for my son was something I needed.

Suddenly, I heard angry barking from the dog and the sounds of something… bursting from the ground. Grabbing my gun, I ran outside to find overgrown naked mole rats. I had always thought they were rather ugly, even if they made good pets. These ones, though… They had large, bulging white eyes, wrinkly, furless pink skin with odd bubbling in patches, enormous, jagged, yellow teeth, and too-large claws, so their movements were even more uncoordinated. Thanking the practice sessions Nate had insisted on, I helped the dog dispatch them; still got a rather nasty bite on my leg, but nothing too serious. I cleaned it, wrapped it, and stimpack’d it, before heading on. 

A few minutes later, after killing two giant, skin-crawlingly disgusting mosquitoes, I was hiding behind a car as a mismatched group of men and women brought hell upon the old Museum. There was a black man in a very… 1700s-looking outfit. He was holding off the group, but only just. I had never killed someone, nor have I ever truly wanted to. But if I didn’t do something he’d be killed, and that’s not something I would be able to live with. An innocent person needing help, but me not giving it. So, I aimed from my hiding spot, and took aim at one of the farther off raiders.

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a story following the main storyline and then some. Things will vary from the original game. There will be sensitive topics broached, so if you would like a list before reading I will gladly provide a rough outline. This will be a very long, slow burn romance and could take up to 100 chapters or more. 
> 
> If you would care to, leave a critique! Not required.


End file.
